Left Alone: An Ending is a Beginning
by Layana Danare
Summary: The minute Mira stepped on to this planet.. this Malachor V.. she could feel how very dark it was. She just has to find Jacen so they can leave this tainted place! OneShot. Part 3 of 3.


My best version of this was lost due to some problems with FanFiction's "login/submission" feature, or something like that, so I'm sorry. I hope you still like this.

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My red mane whipped at my cheeks, driven by the wind that seemed to come from all directions, inside the Sith Academy, too! It stung my green eyes to where I could hardly see. I didn't mind so much, seeing how the only thing to see was dead Sith strewn all over the floor and their blood on the walls. It was plain to see that Jacen had come this way. But where was he now? I couldn't feel his presence, though I reached out with everything that I had. But that really wasn't much... Seeing how I had just begun my training, and this place was thick with the shadows of the dark side.

Jacen was still alive, I was sure of it.

He had to be.

There was just no other way. Jacen was one of the only two real Jedi left in the galaxy. He and Atris were the only ones left. All the others were dead. Gone. Killed by Kreia. Visas, who used to be a Sith, and Brianna, whom Jacen had taught against Atris' will, were dead. Bao-Dur, Atton and I had only just begun our training. I barely knew how to use force powers, while Atton was still better with blasters than a lightsaber. Bao-dur still carried old scars, which sometimes got in the way of his training.

We couldn't survive without Jacen.

The Jedi couldn't survive without Jacen.

I entered a large, dark chamber. Dark as in, the Dark side. This place pulsed with dark feelings. I would have thought it was the center of the Trayus Academy, but I knew better. As dark as this room was, there was another room, pulling me in it's direction. Like a vaccum.

I stepped toward it. If Jacen had come through here, and I knew that he had, he would have gone in there. Kreia was probably in there. As I crossed the floor, my foot nudged something.

A sith.

A dead sith.

Sion.

I had never encountered Sion. Only Jacen, Atton, Kreia and Brianna ever had. But I had heard about him. Jacne would never let us forget the story of how he and Kreia discovered their force bond at the hands of Sion. He would never let us forget that when Kreia had lost her hand, he himself had felt like he had been maimed. He would never let us forget his first thoughts when he had encountered Sion. He was every bit as scarred as Jacen had told me. A shattered man put back together. I wondered what had kept him alive. What kept him going.

Whatever it was, it wasn't helping him anymore.

I turned away from the pain in his face. It was an uncomfortable sight. I could see the lightsaber burns upon it, clear as day. I examined them. I knew that that was Jacen's lightsaber. He had altered it with crystals to make a fine, highly focused beam of viridian. The length of the blade changed at times, and so did it's shape. Sometimes it looked like it was flat on one side, like a sword, and at other times it looked totally round. It changed with Jacen imagination, which often wandered. I knew that it did so because of the crystal inside of it that was bonded to Jacen.

I knelt at the door to the Trayus Core. Did I really want to go inside? I could feel the darkness tugging at me, threatening to jerk me under the door. The door was cold as ice and not as pretty. I fingered the keypad for a moment before pressing the "open door" button.

Locked.

I had no way of knowing what Kreia's password was. It looked like I'd be doing the the old fashioned way.

Half an hour later, the scattered casings of security spikes littered the bare floor. I threw down my last one in disgust. The door had no intention of opening, and I could now hear lightsabers clashing inside. I was becoming desperate, and frustrated tears welled up in my green eyes. I frantically tried using my lightsaber on the door, but I knew that it would take way too long to slice through all that metal. I picked myself up off of the floor and walked over to the keypad.

Kreia, I entered on the keypad.

Error. Incorrect password.

Trayus Core, I entered.

Error. Incorrect password.

I tried dozens of other passwords, but at last, I could think of no more. Then I remembered something. There was one person that Kreia trusted, one person that she confided all in. One person that she loved. My chilled hands rammed at the keypad as fast as they could go.

J-A-C-E-N

Correct. Door Opening...

I breathed a sigh of relief, but it did not last long. The first thing I laid my eyes on as I entered the Trayus Core was Jacen, standing toe to toe with Kreia. Kriea had no lightsabers, but I knew that she had other ways of defending herself. A lot of them. I breathed a second sigh of relief when I saw Jacen's lips move and a simple question echoed throughout the Trayus Core.

"And what of Mira?" Jacen was asking.

I listened as hard as I could, but at first, I couldn't make any sense of her words. Then I clearly heard the words, "Her death will occur in many years time on a forgotten planet, saving the lives of others. But it will be her choice, and she will have no regrets."

Me? I would die saving someone? Yeah right. I snorted. Like that was ever going to happen. I heard Jacen ask a few more questions, but they seemed like mumbled garbage to me. I did hear Kreia say something about Atton being the fool and how the Force always watches over ones such as he. I could have strangled her for that, except that I seemed to be in a daze. A dream that I could not break out of.

A scream and a rumble low in the earth startled me. A blast of cold, cold air blew my red mane away from my face. It was getting long, I noticed. It was already shoulder length. I'd have to cut it soon...

The Trayus Core shook and trembled, waking me completely. I ran to Jacen as fast as I could, calling his name. He turned, surprised, and his eyes widened. "Mira! What are you doing here? How did you get here?"

"I followed you," I said, holding onto his sleeve as another earth tremor shook us to the ground. I pushed my hair back and accepted his hand to stand up again. We held onto each other for support as huge pieces of rubble began to fall around us. "I tracked you here, it wasn't all that hard. You left a steady trail." In addition to dead Sith inside the academy, deas Storm Beats that Jacen had killed had literally littered the pathway to the academy.

"I guess not." We were practically yelling now. It was hard to make yourself heard over the earth tremors. Jacen looked me in the eye. "I don't want to ask this twice, Mira. Who survived?"

"Well, obviously I did."

"Mira."

"Atton and Bao- Dur survived, but HK-47 and T3-M4 took some pretty heavy damage. Bao-Dur shut them down. GO-TO was okay, and Bao-dur.. He sacrificed his droid."

"Did he?" Jacen sounded like he wasn't surprised and I wondered how he could not be. "And the girls?"

"The girls? You mean like Visas and Brianna?"

"Yes."

"Are they here, do you mean? No, it's just me."

"Mira."

"Fine, but you're not going to like this. Brianna is dead. And Visas.. We're pretty sure she's dead, too. Now are you happy?"

"No." I knew what he meant.

Jacen took a deep breath and sighed, "I guess we haven't got much of a chance to get through this." He waved his hand toward the falling rubble. He looked back at me, "at least I won't die alone." He and I sat down and he leaned into my shoulder, closing his blue eyes. I looked at his face and realized just how worn out he was. The three years we had been on this long, long journey had taken their toll on the handsome man.

I hope he isn't reading my thoughts, I thought with a start. I had already refused him and I didn't need him remind me of that later.

I leaned my head against his curly brown hair as another rumble from within shook the earth. I held tight to Jacen and used to force to keep the rubble off of us. Then, all of a sudden, from amid the falling rubble came the most beautiful thing I had ever laid my eyes on.

The Ebon Hawk.

I could have danced for joy, but Jacen was heavy and he didn't seem like he wanted to dance. Instead I lifted his head and he opened his eyes.

"Mira?" His voice was heavy and blank.

"We're not gonna die."

"We're not?" I heard something like interest coming from deep inside of him.

"No, look behind you, Jacen," I said.

Jacen gathered himself and looked. His eyes lit up and the Jedi, worn down by fatigue and battle, scars and pain, grief and loss, rose from the rubble and walked toward the Ebon Hawk's ramp, open like arms spread wide, with the same straight line in his back and the same strong, steady step that never faltered through the trials he faced.

I just sat there for a moment, staring at him in awe. Jacen had been through so much. War. Loss of the Force. Exile. Rejection. Loss of his only love, Brianna. Pain. How could he continuously rise from the darkest circumstances, only to be pushed down again? How did he survive?

In an instant, Jacen was beside me again. "Come on, Mira. Let's get out of here!"

I agreed to that, of course. I stood and we ran together to the Hawk's ramp where Atton was waiting.

"Mira!" Atton spread his arms wide and enveloped me in a warm embrace. I fell into them and we stood, rocking, for a few minutes, Jacen looking on and grinning like a schoolboy. Then I thought of something and pushed away.

"Wait a minute, if you're not in the cockpit, who in the galaxy is driving this hunk of junk?" I shouted.

"Relax, Mira. Bao-Dur is in the pilot's seat, and he reactivated the droids to help him," Atton yelled back. "But he did say to get back there as soon as possible..."

"What are we standing around here for, then?" I screeched. "Let's go!" I ran toward the cokpit, jerking the two men along with me.

Atton slipped into his pilot's seat and began to skillfully maneuver his way around the rubble coming from the dying planet. He had had a lot of practice dodging strange obstacles throughout our journey, and this time it looked like a piece of cake for him. The real test came when the planet exploded. Hundreds of huge, sharp, rocks came flying at us. Bao-Dur put the shields up to save our hull and gave Jacen and I a look that said, get to the gun turrets and vaporize those rocks!

We obeyed quickly. I slid into my seat, heart pounding rapidly. Jacen and I fired constantly for about ten minutes, destroying about fifty shards of rock between us. Then, all was clear. Bao-Dur's voice said over the comm system, "You two can stop blasting now! We're safe!"

I jumped up and ran to the cockpit to hug him. Then I hugged Atton and Jacen. I even hugged the droids. If droids can have expressions, I could have sworn that HK-47 looked embaressed.

We all cheered as we left that dark, evil planet behind us. But amid all the celebration, I'm positive I heard Jacen mumble something like, "we're not safe yet." Now, what did he mean by that?

We were about to find out.


End file.
